


Watching Your Back

by Theoroark



Series: FemslashFest 2017 [3]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Ana being kind of a mess, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 04:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13023018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoroark/pseuds/Theoroark
Summary: Day Three:DiscoveryAna watching her daughter grow up, from a distance.





	Watching Your Back

In Numbani, Ana paid a hacker to give her reports on Fareeha’s basic training.

 

“Nothing too in depth,” she said, when the Omnic’s ears drooped at the mention of the Egyptian military. “Just her class ranking, any programs she’s applied to? It’d be the sort of thing any other recruit could access, for the most part, it shouldn’t be too hard–”

 

It had cost her all the money she had saved from her past life, but the hacker gave her what she had asked for. When she opened the file, and read the Fareeha’s name at the top of her class list, and identified all the honors and interests that she knew, from experience, put her daughter on the fast track for officership and special ops, she had been unable to do anything for her daughter but cry for her. But at least she knew.

 

Fareeha was doing better than she had in the academy, she thought when she looked over the data the next day, considerably number. She wondered if anyone had told her that.

 

In Istanbul, she heard about her daughter’s wedding. Fareeha and Dr. Ziegler had bought a wedding announcement in the paper, and so Ana did not need to pay for that information, it just lit up her holovid over her morning tea. The announcement was accompanied by a picture of the two of them in tank tops in the park, both hugging a big Labrador and smiling hugely. The paper said it had been a small ceremony and Ana had felt a pang of sadness and guilt at that, that she had deprived the couple of some of the little family the two of them had left. Then she read about Sam walking Fareeha down the aisle, Angela’s grandmother walking her, Fareeha’s sergeant officiating the ceremony, Angela’s foster brother handing them the rings.

 

She set the holovid down. Fareeha had always been such an outgoing girl. Dr. Ziegler had always been resourceful. Her pity rose up and away from the two women and the dog.

 

In Giza, she heard about the attack on Helix, just over the horizon. She had come down from the rooftop for dinner and Jack had been waiting there for her with some strained look of concern and she had known without him having to say anything that something had happened to Fareeha.

 

“I couldn’t find a detailed list of casualties,” he told her as she sat there, her hands wrapped tight around her teacup. “We don’t know if Fareeha was affected at all. We don’t know if he knows she’s there.”

 

Ana nodded. She thought distantly about Gabriel teaching Fareeha how to play HORSE, sewing Fareeha’s Halloween costumes, hugging Fareeha at her funeral.

 

“It may cause more problems for her. Put her in the crosshairs when she wasn’t before. But it’s up to you, Ana. I’ll go wherever you tell me.”

 

Gabriel had always thought big picture, had always been able to strategize as though he were the chessmaster, not one of the pieces. Jack had always thought long term, had always been able to clear the blood from their eyes and point them towards some future where they would want to be human. Ana, though, Ana had specialized in being in the moment. Her instincts had been famous at Overwatch. It did not matter what the chain of command was– if Ana told them to push, they pushed, if she told them to run, they ran. Gabriel had trusted the facts, Jack had trusted the people, Ana had trusted herself.

 

But now Gabriel was losing and Jack’s eyesight was fading and Ana had learned how to hesitate, and she could not forget. Fareeha was a five minute drive away and Ana could not imagine ever moving from this chair. Jack waited for her answer and she held her cup of tea and stared at her daughter’s ID photo, at her shiny suit and opaque visor, and she did not know how to give him that.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @tacticalgrandma on tumblr, if you want to talk to me there.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and any comments/kudos would mean the world to me <3


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